The present invention relates in general to a dispenser comprising at least two parallel, hollow cylinders for supplying different mutually reactive components to a mixing device located downstream of said cylinders; a respective first piston moveable in each of the cylinders and displaceable by a piston rod connected to the respective piston; said pistons rods being interconnected for simultaneous dispensing of the components contained in the cylinders, when the piston rods and pistons are displaced in the cylinders towards a respective outlet therein; and a means for actuating the pistons rods to perform a forward stroke of the pistons in their respective cylinders for dispensing an amount of said reactive components to the mixing device, said actuating means comprising a spring member adapted to act on the piston rods, and a manually operable brake member for controlling the force of the spring acting on the piston rods.
In particular, but not exclusively, the present invention relates to a dispenser of the above mentioned kind for supplying two mutually reactive sealant components, such as fibrinogen and thrombin, to a mixing device for applying an accurately mixed solution of such components to biological tissue, for example for effecting hemostasis or for any other type of therapeutic objective.
Various types of dispensers for dispensing a two-component fluid mixture are known. For example, WO 98/40115 discloses a dispenser of the kind mentioned in the introductory portion above. The dispenser has the shape of a pistol with a handle at the rear end thereof. A compression coil spring acts on the rear part of the piston rods via a slide, and one arm of a two-armed lever mounted at the handle acts as a brake on the slide to control the spring force exerted on the piston rods to thereby control the discharge of the fluid contents in the containers. Although this pistol-shaped dispenser is mechanically simple, it may in some instances be awkward and difficult to manipulate accurately, when a precise application of the dispensed fluid mixture is required.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a dispenser, which is very compact in size and easy to manipulate carefully and accurately in narrow spaces. The dispenser is preferably designed to be hand-held like a pencil with easy finger access to a brake-deactivating knob and may be disposable or refilled after emptying of the cylinder contents.
For this purpose the dispenser of the present invention, as described above by way of introduction, is characterized in that the actuating means comprises at least one rotatable member biased in a rotational direction by a torsion spring, and at least one flexible string attached, at a first end thereof, to the rotatable member so as to be wound thereon, and, at a second end thereof, to an element connected to the piston rods, wherein the manually operable brake means is arranged to normally act on the rotatable member to hold it still, but, when deactivated, adapted to release the rotatable member to thereby wind the string upon the rotatable member while simultaneously causing the pistons to perform a forward stroke for dispensing the reactive components to the mixing device.
Other features and structural details of the dispenser of the present invention will be set forth in the dependent claims and described in the following description under reference to the accompanying drawings.
Unless otherwise defined, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this invention belongs. Suitable methods and materials are described below, although methods and materials similar or equivalent to those described herein can also be used in the practice or testing of the present invention. All publications, patent applications, patents, and other references mentioned herein are incorporated by reference in their entirety. In case of conflict, the present specification, including definitions, will control. In addition, the materials, methods, and examples are illustrative only and not intended to be limiting.